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South Park Bridge gets $34 million grant

Sen. Patty Murray and Congressman Jim McDermott are expected to join county officials Friday afternoon for a “major announcement” on the South Park Bridge.

The federal government has awarded a $34 million TIGER II grant for construction of a new bridge, a source informs seattlepi.com . The bridge was closed June 30 because county officials say they could no longer predict how long it could safely support freight and vehicle traffic. The closure severed a main route from Georgetown over the Duwamish River into South Park’s main business district.

A “major announcement” is expected at 2:30 p.m. at the south end of the bridge, said Frank Abe, spokesman for County Executive Dow Constantine. Abe couldn’t confirm what the announcement was about.

Replacing the bridge will cost about $132 million. Construction could take two to three years.

The bridge connects two Seattle neighborhoods and Tukwila, but lands in a tiny sliver of King County land. For years, county officials were unable to raise the money to build a replacement. After getting elected, Constantine managed to garner about $90 million in commitments from Seattle, the county, the state, the Port of Seattle and the Puget Sound Regional Council, toward construction of a new bridge and demolition of the old one. The fact that King County had raised about two-thirds of the project’s price made it more competitive for federal money this time around.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood stopped to see the bridge last month while in town to celebrate the start of construction on Seattle’s Mercer Corridor Project. The Mercer project was selected over the bridge for a $30 million stimulus grant earlier this year.

During his visit, LaHood said: “Everybody here has bent my ear about it, and obviously we have taken note of it.”

Seattle City Councilman Tom Rasmussen, who chairs the council’s transportation committee and will be attending the event, said getting money for the South Park Bridge has been one of his priorities.

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